The Word for Woman Is Wilderness. Abi Andrews

      

      PRAISE FOR The Word for Woman Is Wilderness

      “The Word for Woman Is Wilderness is unlike any published work I have read, in ways that are beguiling, audacious… rises to its own challenges in engaging intellectually as well as wholeheartedly with its questions about gender, genre and the concept of wilderness. The novel displays wide reading, clever writing and amusing dialogue.”

      —Sarah Moss, The Guardian

      “This is not reconciliatory prose. It doesn’t seek to please. It’s not asking for your acceptance or the benediction of this review. It is far stronger than that. It is a quiet, sardonic, funny, fluid text, a visionary book, that shows us the future is in fact already here.”

      —Nick Hayes, Caught by the River

      “A gripping feminist reimagining of Into the Wild.” —Elle

      “A thinking woman’s adventure story… [Andrews’ prose has] grace and reflection… beautiful, thoughtful, and often humorous.”

      —Lucy Scholes, The National

      “The many-colored themes and ideas in the book are themselves painted on complex and overlapping canvases—of feminism, in an age of wilderness, but a wilderness that has been warped as it becomes embedded in the Anthropocene.” —The Ecologist

      “A good book is one that makes you think about your own life. A great book is one that challenges your thinking. But it is a truly remarkable book that changes how you think, and The Word for Woman Is Wilderness had that effect on me. I can’t give it higher praise than that.” —Bookmunch

      “[The Word for Woman Is Wilderness] is immersive, thought-provoking, and a unique reading experience.” —Jenny Colvin, Reading Envy

      “Refreshing and funny and unlike anything else. I feel as if I’ve been waiting for this book for a long time.” —Daisy Johnson, author of Fen

      “Clever, funny and thoughtful.”

      —Will Ashon, author of Strange Labyrinth

      WHO WE ARE TWO DOLLAR RADIO is a family-run outfit dedicated to reaffirming the cultural and artistic spirit of the publishing industry. We aim to do this by presenting bold works of literary merit, each book, individually and collectively, providing a sonic progression that we believe to be too loud to ignore.

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      Love the PLANET? So do we.

      Printed on Rolland Enviro. This paper contains 100% post-consumer fiber, is manufactured using renewable energy - Biogas and processed chlorine free. It is FSC^® certified, Rainforest Alliance^TM and Ancient Forest Friendly^TM certified.

       Printed in Canada

      All Rights Reserved COPYRIGHT→ © 2018 BY ABI ANDREWS ISBN→ 978-1-937512-79-8 Library of Congress Control Number available upon request. Published in 2018 in Great Britian by Serpent’s Tail, an imprint of Profile Books Ltd.

      SOME RECOMMENDED READING LOCATIONS: Pretty much anywhere because books are portable and the perfect technology!

      

      ANYTHING ELSE? Yes. Do not copy this book—with the exception of quotes used in critical essays and reviews—without the prior written permission from the copyright holder and publisher. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means.

      WE MUST ALSO POINT OUT THAT THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s lively imagination. Any resemblance to real events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

       TABLE OF CONTENTS

       PASSING THROUGH THE HELIOPAUSE

       HOW TO CONVEY INVISIBLE DEATH

       THE RECEDING HORIZON

       INTO THE WILDNESS

       MY MOUNTAIN MY MOON

       HOW TO SAY GOODBYE

       ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      dedicated to

      Tilikum (Tilly) the whale

      who perhaps had his own name in whale language

      1981–2017

       PASSING THROUGH THE HELIOPAUSE

      The space probe Voyager 1 left the planet in 1977. Any month, day, minute, second now it will enter interstellar space and become the furthest-reaching man-made object, and the first to leave the heliosphere. This will be one of the biggest moments in scientific history and we will never know exactly when it happened. Three things would signify that Voyager 1 had crossed the border of the heliopause: an increase in galactic cosmic rays, reversal of the direction of the magnetic field, and a decrease in the temperature of charged particles. Voyager 1 reports show a 25 percent increase per month of cosmic rays. But its signals take seventeen hours to travel back to Earth at the speed of light.

      When did my journey begin? At the moment of its conception? When I left home in a delivery van with a friend of my dad’s